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The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has said that the reduction in electricity tariffs may take a bit longer than expected.

The ECG explained that the reduction will only reflect on the bills of consumers after they make their second purchase of credit for electricity for April.

The Public Relations Officer for the Accra East Region of the ECG, Isaac Nurris Ainooson explained to Accra-based Citi FM that the reduction will reflect upon the second purchase this month.

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“We told customers that when you vend on the 1st of April, the first vending would aggregate your consumption for the whole of March and would give you the credit refund due you from the 15th to the 31st of March.”

“So those who went to our vending points to deposit money for the first purchase, some of them saw the tariff as in the subsidies and all that and in the second vending, whatever is due you from the 15th to the 31st of March will be given to customers,” he added.

His comments follow concerns raised by some consumers that the reduction in electricity tariff did not reflect when they purchased at vending points on April 1, 2018.

A customer at the ECG vending point in Osu said she was disappointed after making her first purchase in April only to realize that the tariff reduction has not reflected on her purchase.

“Every month I pay one hundred Ghana cedis but now I pay more than that, I came today to purchase credit hoping to see the tariff reduction on my receipt but unfortunately for me, it’s the same just like the old ones, so I will have to wait until my next purchase.”

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However, Isaac Nurris Ainooson said the reduction will be seen after the first purchase.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) last month announced a power reduction of 17.5% for residential, 30% for non-residential, 25% for SLTs and 10% for the mines on energy consumption only.

The decision to reduce electricity cost was taken after the PURC held an extensive stakeholder consultation, detailed technical analysis of utility tariff proposals and consideration of inputs and concerns of consumers.

The PURC said the key objectives in the tariff review were “to ensure efficient and equitable tariffs and to ensure that tariffs are relevant to the current socio-economic environment.”

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